Floatinghead's ramblings about music and music-related themes interspersed with various interludes and home of Cabeza de Vaca radio show on Scanner FM, Barcelona.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

P022: Cabeza de Vaca – Shoegaze techno.

Dedicated to DJ Wayne.It has been up already a week, but it has been
a busy time for me so I did not get to cross-post here on Mind Bomb the new Cabeza de Vaca show on Scanner FM!

Thematically it is a personal show since my
origins were totally Luddite and guitar-based for many years and several of the
songs have roots in particular epochs that mean little to anyone else but me.
The MBV remix, for example, was an occasional track at the old Fruition, Firm and
Loft clubs back in Perth in Australia in the early 90s and always caused
consternation amongst the indie kids as to whether it was ok to dance to or
not. It is hard to quantify the divide between clubbers and indie kids, but I
am sure it exists today, but back when electronica really broke through it was
a vicious war for turf between the two and it seemed like there was almost no
common ground by some unwritten law. Certainly the later days of the Firm there
was a mini-club in the room next door that played house and techno circa 91 and
92, but was invariably empty. Raves did happen from time to time, but it didn’t
seem like there was much scene back then, but I am probably wrong. In anycase, Andy
Weatherall was a champion who crossed divides, not only for his remix work with
MBV (which has its flaws), but also for his work with others like Primal Scream
and amongst others Happy Mondays. Not shoegaze, I know, but if you are looking
for crossover material from the time it is a good example. In particular, the
Club Mix of “Hallelujah” by Weatherall is a classic and was used to great
effect in the film “24 Hour Party People.”

There were some other tracks that I just couldn’t
squeeze in as well which is a shame. Some I wanted to flag up include the DJ
Spooky remix of Lush’s “Undertow”, the best track off their second album “Split”.
Spooky’s remix is long, but it doesn’t ever really feel boring, always adding
in a new element right to the end. It’s a big shame that Lush didn’t push more
collaboration’s with dance artists as their sexy image, their psychedelic sound
and the twin voices of Miki Berenyi and Emma Anderson would have been a dream.

The Telescopes were another curious band of the
era. They changed almost more than any other group, starting as a gothic-styled
band with a heavy guitar sound and a rich source of poetic lyrics from Steven
Lawrie on their seminal “Taste” album, original released on What Goes on
Records. Their switch to Creation slowed them down at first for the essential “Precious
Little” EP, before psychedelia kicked in for a glorious run of three EPs that
accumulated in the eponymous album that bore more of a jazz influence. Amongst
the three Eps was “Celeste” with its radio friendly title track, but also a “megamix”
of sorts in the 9-plus minutes of “Celestial”. Hardly a perfect track, perhaps
dulled a little by the repetitive bass and drums, but the psychedelic top end
is extraordinary, whereas the long-range effect over the 9 minutes certainly
papers over the cracks. A lost moment perhaps, at least in terms of the dance floor,
but after that they still had “The Third Wave” album and more in them, and they
still more or less exist today.

The inclusion of Bark Psychosis was a hard
choice to make as it is not essentially a dance track, but it does sound like a
guitar band trying to appropriate the sound. As well, the chunky bass and
guitars do tend to signal Graham Sutton’s future forays into drum n bass
territory with Boymerang, a one album project, like the reformed Bark Psychosis
in the early 2000s. Another missed opportunity for all?

Finally, Slowdive finish off the show with
another of their masterpieces and a surprising turn after their other
masterpiece that is “Pygmalion”. Never has there even been such a big contrast
between sounds of one group in such a small time. The isolationist and
depressive minimalism of “Pygmalion” was far away from the sentimental and
elegant “5 EP”, four tracks of genuine shoegaze techno that was ultimately a
step too far for the band who broke up there after. Definitely a missed opportunity,
and one that has not yet been followed up on by anyone sufficiently. There was
even a remix EP of the EP, but sadly it didn’t quite reach the same heights,
however, there is a surprising number of Slowdive remixes out there for the
crate digger.

Finally, I cannot finish without mentioning
Speedy J’s EP “Shoegaze” that came out on Electric Deluxe in 2011.